Tarasque: Have you ever encoutered one?

[Merkuri]

They actually killed it and ended the encounter with full hit points. Pretty lame and disappointing actually. Big T would go nuts on a PC, someone would tap the PC with a Heal spell and then they just beat the thing to death.

I played in this game. I think we had enough info beforehand that the DM let us look up the Tarrasque entry when we were prepping for the fight. I think we also managed to keep it at a distance from most of the party and were just hitting it from afar. It really was a cakewalk. We were proud of ourselves at the end, but were also thinking, "This was it? This is the big undefeatable terror of D&D?"

 

[TarionzCousin]

Okay, here is everyone's chance to encounter the Tarrasque in play.

You are Bullywulf, legendary hero (Fighter 18/Cleric 17/Thief 20). You wield Excaliper, the legendary twin sword famous for "measuring out the final moments of monsters' lives."

You have tracked the legendary beast to its lair. After spending an hour scouting and listening, you believe it may be asleep.

What do you do? (Choose one sblock)

1. Charge in and skewer it while it is asleep.
[sblock]It wasn't asleep. It breathes paralyzing acid on you (What? Stupid DM: always altering the monsters) swallows you whole and you are slowly digested over several hours, wishing for sudden death the entire time.[/sblock]

2. Sneak in and look to sneak attack it, doing my massive extra damage.
[sblock]You catch it unawares and deal nearly 500 hit points of damage in one shot. That seems to anger it slightly and it impales you on both of its horns and then shoves them into the cave wall behind you. For several minutes its gaze stuns you into inaction as it slowly awakens. First one claw, then another slowly peel all of your equipment, armor and clothes off. It scrapes all of your belongings into a pile. Next it backs away from the wall and lowers its horns. You slide to the ground in great pain but not dead. It flicks a claw at you as if to say "Go away." You scramble away, naked but happy to be alive. You grin and run to freedom.[sblock]Only to be cruelly grabbed from behind as it pounces and grinds you into a thick marinara sauce.[/sblock][/sblock]

3. Spend time buffing myself as much as I can, then carefully walk in with my sword drawn.
[sblock]It charges as you first come into view. You fail your Will save and run screaming away for at least 12 seconds before it pins you to the ground with its tail spike. You continually fail your Grapple/Escape checks as it sucks your flesh off your bones one agonizing limb at a time.[/sblock]

4. Blow the legendary Horn of Hero Summoning, and gain 1000 bloodthirst barbarian allies.
[sblock]They last 3 rounds, total. Cautiously bringing up the rear, you are just in time to observe the last of them being made into chunky salsa. Unfortunately, a hitherto-unknown side effect of blowing the Horn has rendered you unable to take offensive actions for 10 rounds. You live 4 rounds as it slowly, oh-so-slowly, squeezes your skull in its mouth. Yes, since you asked, its breath is truly horrific.[/sblock]

Summary (Open after you have chosen one sblock from above)
[sblock]Even with all your legendary stuff and your legendary self, you were no match for the legendary tarrasque. Better luck next character![/sblock]

 

[Janx]

back in 2e, a tarrasque had woken up at the tail end of a particularly bloody battle with goblins (we're talking army scale here).

Not wanting to lose my own troops, since it started munching indisciminately, I used Improved Phantasmal Force to show it an ever retreating group of goblins.

I hopped on its back and kept the illusion going (like a carrot on a stick in front of a donkey). I led it back to the goblins city and snuck off.

I got credit for defeating it with a 2nd level spell. It sure beat actually fighting the darn thing.

 

[Wik]

I used it once, in 2e. I was around 12 at the time, and was running a mini campaign for my dad and my little brother. There may have been a third player, but I'm not sure, now.

Anyways, the PCs were wandering the lands when they heard signs of a battle, and saw the Tarassque fighting a band of high level heroes. As the GM, I really had no idea what the hell I was doing - I was young! The PCs watched as the heroes fought the beast, slowly getting picked off. Then the ranger of the group snuck up, fired a few magical arrows as it regenerated, lured it into a pit, and somehow (I forget how) killed it.

Because I was a dumb GM, I was convinced that the PCs deserved some sort of grand reward for this great deed, and they found the creature's "lair" which had phat loot, as it were. Not to mention the stuff the group was able to loot off the dead NPCs.

The campaign ended shortly thereafter.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

I've run away from one if that counts.

The DM put us up against it at 3rd level. We ran. I (the barbarian) and our rogue escaped. The other four did not. I may have tripped one of them to aid my escape... To be fair the cleric, sorcerer, and paladin were already dead at that point, and I was faster than the fighter, i.e. he was more suited to being a heroic sacrifice.

The campaign ended from there, and although two of us got away it was heavily implied in the epilogue that most of the planet was destroyed because we woke the thing up. It was entirely not our fault.

 

[was]

never fought it as a pc..think most view it as a campaign ender

 

[brewdus]

In a2e FR campaign, I think our characters were trying to escape from Menzoberranzen. As we neared the surface, we entered a huge cave occupied by a sleeping Tarrasque. As we exited the cave we woke it up and left it as a nasty surprise for our drow persuers!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Used it in name only in a campaign setting I was working on: Plateau; I had the plateaus (sp) rising 1000 feet above a jungle world and told my players that it was death down in it; swamps, man-eatting plants, dinos and tarasque.

 

[ashockney]

Absolutely!

In several campaigns, in multiple editions of this fine game. The most recent was the dropping in of a slightly "spruced" version of the 4e Tarrasque in a 14 player highlander game (3.5) we ran at Gen Con this year. Everyone was playing immortal 15th level fighters with vorpal bladed weapons. It was good times. I believe that angry Tarrasque got himself a good 3 or 4 immortals.

Good gaming!

 

[Ahnehnois]

I ran one (substantially advanced) at the end of a campaign once. The party was so cheesed out at that point that the sorcerer time stopped and limited wished for an automatic crit for every one of the druid's animal companion's natural attacks, which promptly tore the thing apart, allowing said sorcerer to wish it away for good. An expensive victory for the mage there, but the battle didn't last long.